In Giordani v. Legal Aid Society, 17-CV-5569, 2018 WL 6199553 (E.D.N.Y. Nov. 27, 2018), the court held, inter alia, that plaintiff failed to plead an age-based hostile work environment claim. From the decision: While Plaintiff’s hostile work environment claim is largely based on a series of unpleasant interactions with his colleagues, some of the incidents…
Read More Age-Based Hostile Work Environment Insufficiently AllegedIn Yu v. City of New York et al, 17-CV-7327, 2018 WL 6250659 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 29, 2018), the court, inter alia, dismissed plaintiff’s hostile work environment claims. It summarized the well-established legal standard: To bring a hostile work environment claim under federal or state law, a plaintiff must allege facts from which a court can…
Read More Hostile Work Environment Claims Dismissed; “Asian Girl” Comment InsufficientIn a decision handed down yesterday, Collins v. Resource Center for Independent Living, 17-CV-0925, 2018 WL 5983377 (N.D.N.Y. Nov. 14, 2018), the court, inter alia, granted defendant’s motion to dismiss – on the pleadings, under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(c) – plaintiff’s Title VII race-based hostile work environment claim. From the decision: [T]he Court finds that…
Read More Hostile Work Environment Claim Dismissed on the Pleadings; Court Cites Absence of Racially Derogatory StatementsIn Wilson v. National Grid USA Service Company, Inc. et al, 2018 WL 5886438 (N.D.N.Y. Nov. 9, 2018), the court dismissed plaintiff’s race- and gender-based hostile work environment claims. Here is the court’s summary of the relevant law: To state a hostile work environment claim in violation of Title VII, a plaintiff must plead facts that…
Read More Hostile Work Environment Claim Dismissed; Alleged Racial Comments Were Not Heard FirsthandIn Schmitt v. City of New York et al, 15-CV-05992, 2018 WL 5777019 (E.D.N.Y. Nov. 1, 2018), the court, inter alia, denied defendants’ motion for summary judgment on plaintiff’s disability-related hostile work environment claims. This decision teaches, among other things, that the facts underlying such claims must be evaluated as a whole, rather than piecemeal.…
Read More Disability-Related Hostile Work Environment Claims Survive Summary JudgmentIn Stern v. State University of New York et al, 2018 WL 4863588 (EDNY Sept. 30, 2018), the court, inter alia, dismissed plaintiff’s hostile work environment claim. The court summarized the well-established law in this area: To establish a hostile work environment under Title VII …, a plaintiff must show that ‘the workplace is permeated…
Read More Hostile Work Environment Claim Not Sufficiently Alleged Against SUNYA recent case, decided by the Eastern District of New York on October 17, 2018, illustrates what does – and, as relevant here, does not – qualify as a “hostile work environment.” The decision is Thompson v. MTA New York City Transit et al, 17-cv-5857, 2018 WL 5045762 (E.D.N.Y. Oct. 17, 2018). The court outlines…
Read More Hostile Work Environment Claim Dismissed; While “Tasteless and Offensive”, Messages Were Not Related to a Protected ClassIn Yaghi v. Pioneer Bank, 16-cv-663, 2018 WL 4903226 (N.D.N.Y. Oct. 9, 2018), the court dismissed plaintiff’s claims of discrimination, retaliation, and hostile work environment. As to the plaintiff’s hostile work environment claim, the court explained: Even construing Plaintiff’s Amended Complaint and his arguments in opposition to summary judgment broadly, there are only two events…
Read More Title VII Hostile Work Environment Claim Dismissed; “Be Careful of Those Arabs” Comment InsufficientIn Parsons v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., 16-CV-0408, 2018 WL 4861379 (E.D.N.Y. Sept. 30, 2018), the court, inter alia, granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment on plaintiff’s race-based hostile work environment claims. Plaintiff alleged, for example, that she witnessed one person make disparaging comments about African-American employees’ hair and dress, and “listened to her direct…
Read More Race-Based Hostile Work Environment Claims Dismissed; Conduct Was Merely “Mildly Offensive”In a recently-filed lawsuit, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission asserts that a well-known restaurant, Christini’s, created, permitted, and encouraged a sex-based hostile work environment for a female bartender – including that the owner propositioned her for dates, subjected to sexual innuendo, and told to dress “sexy” and “date ready” – and then terminated her…
Read More EEOC Sues Christini’s Ristorante Italiano for Gender Discrimination